


All I Do Is Dream of You

by polikszena



Series: Trips to Old Hollywood [2]
Category: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24525628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polikszena/pseuds/polikszena
Summary: After their embarrassing meeting at the party, Kathy Selden cannot get Don Lockwood out of her head: he keeps appearing in her dreams. In order to chase him away, she decides to go to the theatre to see the Royal Rascal.
Series: Trips to Old Hollywood [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772395





	All I Do Is Dream of You

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, actually I wrote this about three years ago when I first saw Singin' in the Rain, but haven't posted it anywhere, so I think it's high time.

Kathy Selden stepped out to the balcony as Juliet, wearing a long nightgown. She looked across the audience sitting in the dark - she could not see them, but she could feel that all eyes were on her. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to start the balcony soliloquy, but no sound came out. She lifted a hand to her throat, trying to make a sound, but nothing happened. She couldn’t speak. What should she do? How should she go on with the scene? She felt her eyes tearing up and she heard whispers from the audience asking what was going on. Why didn't she start speaking?

Then she noticed him standing under the balcony. Don Lockwood, dressed as Romeo, looking right up at her with a smug smile. Then he began to talk, but no sound came out of his mouth either.

“Well, fair Juliet, now we are equal,” he mouthed and Kathy swore she could read his words as if they were in a silent picture. “Now those well-written lines won’t help you,” he continued, climbing up to the balcony. “The great actress is only a shadow, just like us.”

She heard the audience laughing and she became weak in the knees and not in a pleasant way. She wanted to run away, but her feet couldn’t move, while Don Lockwood managed to climb up to her.

“Tell me, fair Juliet, how does that feel?” he asked, stepping closer. At that moment Kathy could finally move her feet, so she started to run. However, the ladder she had climbed up on had disappeared: behind the balcony there was nothing but deep darkness that swallowed her right at the moment she set foot in it.

Then Kathy Selden woke up. A relieved sigh escaped her mouth when she realized that she was in her room and she still had her voice as well. However, the picture of Don Lockwood stayed, looking down at her from the ceiling with that smug smile on his face. Just like every night since that party.  _ Why don’t you just go away? _ she thought, pulling the blanket on her head to get the picture out of her mind.

The next day she went to the theatre to see The Royal Rascal. However, she decided that no matter what, she would not like this picture at all. If you have seen one, you’ve seen them all. Although she was determined not to enjoy the film, after a while, she found herself smiling as she was watching Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont on screen. She was smiling, but not in a mocking way.

That night she found herself in the same theatre she had been in the afternoon, but this time she was the only one in the audience. She watched the film with a small smile on her face and once she even laughed.

“See, fair Juliet?” she heard that familiar voice and looking to her right she could see Don Lockwood sitting down next to her. “These films are not that bad at all,” he said, smiling at her. The next night she returned his smile when he sat next to her in the theatre.

For the next few weeks, in the morning Kathy was hunting for a new job, but in the afternoon she always ended up in the theatre, watching films, especially the ones starring Don Lockwood, and in her dreams she watched them again with him. While she was at the hairdresser’s, she began to read what the magazines wrote about him. Most of them were about his relationship with Lina Lamont. The woman whose face Kathy threw the cake in. She wasn’t surprised that they were together – they were the stars of Monumental Pictures after all. That didn’t stop Don Lockwood from appearing in her dreams or Kathy to quit reading about them. One day she even bought one of the magazines herself, feeling a wave of shame when she paid for it, as she normally did not buy things like that. She nested herself on the couch in their apartment and opened the magazine to read the latest exclusive interview with Don Lockwood. However, she couldn’t finish it, because her roommate’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

“I can’t believe it!” Sally Bridges exclaimed. “Kathy Selden reading magazines? The same Kathy Selden who does not read this rubbish?”

“I’m already feeling guilty about this, please don’t make it worse,” Kathy said, closing the magazine.

“Sorry, but this was too good to leave it without a comment,” Sally said, sitting down next to her. “It’s all because of Lockwood, ain’t it?” she asked.

“I can’t get him out of my head,” Kathy said.

“That’s understandable. If he was in my head, I wouldn’t mind him staying there,” she said.

“It’s been three weeks! He should have found something else to do.  _ I _ should have found something else to do! Such a shame.”

“Anyway, what would you say if I told you that you might get the possibility to tell this to him in person?” Sally asked, pulling a piece of paper out of her bag.

“What do you mean?” Kathy raised a brow.

“Well, as the secretary of Jacob Williams, one of the directors working for Monumental Pictures, I know that they are hiring dancers and actresses for smaller roles,” Sally said, handing the paper to her. “The casting is on Thursday.”

As Kathy read through the advert, she felt her stomach jump. Not because of Don Lockwood, though. Her first thought was to go to the casting and take the job, but then a wave of guilt hit her. Working in the film industry? Wouldn’t that mean to give up her dreams?

No, it wouldn’t, she thought to herself.

She still wanted to be a stage actress, but she was still unemployed and in need of money to move to New York. A short trip to the film industry wouldn’t hurt, would it? Her opinion towards films was changing anyway. She looked up from the advert and smiled at her roommate. “Thank you, Sally,” she said.

“Well, thank you for letting me help in the birth of a new star,” the other woman said with pathos in her voice.

“We are very far from that,” Kathy said, then they both laughed.

In her dreams that night she was dressed as Juliet again, standing on the same balcony as at the other night, but this time not in the theatre – she was in a studio, facing cameras and enormous lights. The crew was also there, although she could only see their silhouettes due to the lighting of the stage. She could hear a male voice shouting “Roll ’em!”, then Don Lockwood appeared under the balcony. He was dressed as Romeo, but this time he had a genuine smile on his face as he looked up at her, and Kathy couldn’t help smiling back at him.


End file.
